LCA FOR ENVIRONMENTAL PRODUCT DECLARATION OF THE NEW BRIDGE OVER THE RIVER PO

Abstract

Anas s.p.a. – the Italian company providing maintenance and construction of main roads and highways – has evaluated the use of a LCA (Life Cycle Assessment) based EPD (Environmental Product Declaration) as an environmental sustainability assessment and communication tool for road infrastructures. The Lombardia Region’s Department of Anas s.p.a. has started in 2013 the creation of the EPD in the International EPD® System for the new bridge over the river Po, near Piacenza, in Northern Italy. The EPD has been verified by an independent accredited certification body in 2015 and it is the first verified EPD for a road bridge in Italy. The goal of the LCA study was to determine the life cycle environmental impacts of the new bridge over its expected lifetime, calculated for unit of length of the bridge, according to the requirements of the International EPD® System, one of the best known programmes for type III environmental declarations operating in accordance with ISO 14025. As a first step the Product Category Rules (PCR), defining the rules and requirements for EPDs of a certain product category, have been created for bridges and elevated highways. The calculated environmental performances of the bridge over its life cycle, from raw material acquisition to operation and maintenance phases, show that raw material acquisition, and in particular steel production, has the greatest impact, contributing from 70% to 84% of all environmental indicators, while the environmental impacts of construction phase (energy use, water use, emissions, wastes) are not extremely relevant. The potential environmental impact per declared unit are reported for the following environmental impact categories, according to PCR: emission of greenhouse gases, emission of gases that contribute to the creation of ground level ozone, emission of acidifying substances, emission of substances to water contributing to oxygen depletion and waste production, resources use, energy use.